Swords and Sorcery.

Saturday, July 22, 2006

Sliding into disrepair.

(Technically I'm an hour into Saturdya but I figured most of you were still living in the past and wouldn't mind so much.)

I've only sporadically been following Day By Day, and it's not because I don't see poltics in quite the same terms they do. It never quite hooked me and, today, I noticed something that might have shown me why.

Today's comic is set on a beach, with a redhead in a bikini. And I wondered 'Why?' There hadn't been any mention of beach going as far as I could tell. The characters weren't talking about beach related subjects. It just seemd like a way to get a female in a bikini onto the scene. Which isn't necessarily bad, but idicated a strange mindset to me. One of the stangest things I've noticed in newspaper comics is the strip that has a really crap pun placed in speech bubbles around a naked chick in a bath, perhaps with her man taking off his shirt as he walks in. The cheapest form of humour. It'd be sad if Day by Day was slipping into that.

Now, granted I'm not the audience for the political humour that is being dished out here, but am getting confused by some of his recent strips. I enjoy reading more conservative cartoons usually, such as Cox and Forkum, because I get the point of view even if I disagree. But I just don't know what Muir is talking about recently.

I guess I'm saying Day by Day comics is a strip that is losing what little interest I had.

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Apologies and two that made me chuckle today.

Zach Miller kindly pointed out that my single issue with the recent kidnapping storyline was a mistake. Way back here the same newspaper headline is visible. Chronologically it seems close (not long after they arrive at the playground the kidnapping takes place (although it put them in a perfect place for such an event to happen, now I come to think of it)) but it's quite a few comics distant which is good. If you actually read the comic closely like I obviously didn't then the strips in between serve to put that information into the back of your head, maybe leaving you with a slight concern. Exactly what I was trying to say I wanted yesterday.

The next strip upped the ante considerably by refering to a newspaper headline 'Another Missing Child Found Dead' but I didn't like this prop. I thought it seemed kind of clumsy to have a child dissappear and then 'discover/remember/etc' that there had been child killings going on. I would have liked to have been aware of the problem already, so I was worried about Megan. Although having her snatched so suddenly was effective.

From there we have seen a sequence of action that was perfectly timed. Despite having to wait between each update, just the right amount of movement was captured each time to feel like a discrete comic but also without losing the impetus that makes such a sequence interesting. Excellent work.

I was going to say that this violent promise was really pushing the comic down some odd avenues but then I noticed a discussion on the livejournal feed (from the man behind Theater Hopper too). Apparantly Monkey comes from Hell, something that was discovered in a different comic that is no longer online, hence the title 'Lost Continuity.'

I'm not sure how quickly we'll be able to get back to the bucket gags, the kidnapping of a young girl and the thought of her murder can't help but have huge influences on characters behavior (unless they are cardboard characters, which I merely mention as a possibility). But I get the impression that even those gag fuelled days might be different now that we've been introduced to demon monkey in this continuity.

I also wanted to say that the sudden switch seen in Kleptobot has been a great character touch. He's had some strange mentions while I've been watching the strip, he always appears to be going for the violent reaction, great for comedy. But I thought the build up of his revenge was dangerous and then it was turned against the kidnapper. One could be confused by this, wondering why he would care about Megan enough to save her but go to such lengths for revenge against her? There's a few answers but I like this one (probably because it's mine?): He's protective of his revenge.

He may not like Megan, but dammit, she's his enemy to get revenge on, not for anyone else to mess with. That strange attraction that we see in the movies so often, where the two who don't get along end up together. A dislike that becomes possession, a sort of caring.

Three for one

Man, I've been running around getting ready for a new semester and didn't get a change to link to a few poignant cartoons on friday.

I was going to mention Bunny's timely and thought provoking cartoon that seems directly related to the current/continuing violence surrounding Israel. I figured I'd leave my own comments on the situation out of it for now. The cartoon carries all the important things.

There is something about this particularA Softer World comic that touches me. I think it manages to capture some of the confusion modern men might feel, unsure of how they should relate to woman, stereotyped into a sexual relationship but aware of so much more.

It makes me think of the way people accuse me of flirting with people but I feel like I'm just being a friend. I've never had anyone on the receiving end claim I was flirting, so I've not worried about it but it seems like a dischord in the way society operates.

--

Finally, a bunch of storylines come together at Medium Large, revealing that the pill people go around making drastic changes to comic strips to improve them. I love their idea of shifting the focus of the Garfield comic to Lyman myself.

Obviously it shares attributes with other physical (as opposed to digital) gamer comics, such as Dork Tower, but I think the closest resemblence would be Order of the Stick. Like OotS, TSoaL features characters who are very much aware of there place in a game and will refer to rules as part of their battles. Unlike the OotS, the characters aren't existing in the Warhammer universe with an awareness of how it works but are actually the miniatures used in the games. We see them being painted and handled regularly.

Most of the time I find the humour is very much directed at those who already understand and probably wouldn't transfer so well to 'outsiders' but since Dawn of War came out maybe that understanding's spreading a little.

Anyway, today they make the best sort of Monty Python tribute gag, the obscure type that fits so well with the characters that you wonder just how long the set-up was planned. Those soldiers are part of units called the pointy sticks you see...

While looking for some other examples of wargaming comics I found a few others I might keep on the reading lists. I'll mention them if there's a particular reason later...

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

And I thought the OmniTaser was a throwaway gadget design!

Oceans Unmoving never quite hooked me in, although I keep meaning to go back and try it again. But the follow-up stories such as Wayang Kulit and Stick Figures in Spaaaaaace have been cool and interesting (I loved the shadow puppets, it reminded me of class projects from school. Those things are awesome).

Monday, July 10, 2006

Galaxy Convey? Seriously?

I can't remember whether it was in one of the sdiebars that go with Home on the Strange or on his LiveJournal but I remember reading an essay by Ferrett recently that talked a bit about gags in comics online. He wrote about how he had been writing to set up the punchline just like so many classic newspaper strips had (and influenced him in the process). But he had realised that there is no real need to wait til then to include funny and you did just as well putting jokes wherever they worked.

I think today's Shortpacked is an example of that. The actions of the unnamed chick, the facial expressions, and then finally the three outbursts all focused on different things. I was chuckling by the time I read the words Galaxy Convey.

Actually, Zeeland was a land near Denmark or something.

Friday, July 07, 2006

If only he'd stop using that cursed slang.

And so it would appear that that bloke over at The Webcomicker really seems to have some sort of Starslip mind, able to see what's going on in that scifi museum warship at early, early stages.

He thought storylines would slowly begin to come together (though from Straub's comment I think others will move apart and new ones will arrive to keep the varied suspense) and here they do. One of the more disconnected storylines has begun to twine with a charcter who did have a direct contact with the Fuseli.

One of the things I'm not clear on is when this meeting is happening. Afte rthe time police stuff and the Starslip Crisis, I'm wondering if this is something earlier than the meeting, later, or simply a totally different universe where the Fuseli never came by.

People don't think you can write about fiction that hasn't happened to you? Isn't that, y'know, part of the definition?

I admit it. I don't actually read most of the Dinosaur Comics. I tend to glance at them and move on. Glancing at a static image comic might seem like a bad idea, but because of the way North distinguishes between offstage characters via fonts and includes titles and narration sometimes, you can get an idea of just how loony the comic is or how much it plays with a concept just from that glance.

It's a good thing I paid attention today. The novel concept that T-Rex outlines is something that I would absolutely love to read, it reminds meof the concepts behind such stories as The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen or Without a Clue.

Speaking as someone who likes books, a novel like this would be like some form of crack, I can just iamgine it now. Is North going to do it? Or do I have to find someone else to provide for me?

Dangerous

For a cartoon whose motto apears to be the barmy and affable Caution: Dangerous When Awesome Joe and Monkey has taken rather a dark turn with this business of revenge from Kleptobot. Today's kidnapping of a young girl captures the point exactly.

I'm not saying that Miller intends for us to assume the worst of what is happening. This isn't the recent girly/rape thing again. This is just a dark tone that is rather unsettling. As Girly went on to show that the darkness wasn't quite what some may have thought, I expect this to move back out into a lighter phase eventually.

It reminds my a lot of those classic comedy shows like Monty Python or the Goons. While comprehensible jokes with punchlines are perfectly valid (the joke here is not that the worm is pushing out and talking, its that the host is 'extremely irritated' at the doctor's interest) it is much more interesting to jsut find something totally bizarre and mix it in.

Most of these comics, however, would probably benefit from dropping the little text box that runs along the bottom. Mostly they just rephrase the joke although there are times when a little clarification is needed (Sisyphus being a classic case. There's no way to know who the guy in the toga is without a title). Try looking at those jokes without the text box just looking at Garfield without his thought bubbles. Sometimes the bizarreness begins to get away on you but, as a whole, the jokes remain intact or only lose a tiny part of their humour.

Then there's the ones like this that aren't hugely funny but are jsut great concepts, both text and art.

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Appropriately, he eats blowfish last.

It was an interesting livejournal/comic project to watch, though it suffered from somehow not showing up on some friendslists. That was a pain.

However the art and the concept were brilliant and made for one of the most interesting travelogues that one could hope to read. It delved into strange corners that most people passing through might never have found.

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

So, what do we call that, Earth Opera?

Still not a lot to say. I'm going through the back numbers of Radioactive Panda. (because I don't usually) due to his recent announcement. Johnson is going to be wrapping up RP roughly around the beginning of next year. I felt sad as I read that, because RP looks cool and has been really funny so far.

Monday, July 03, 2006

Mondays always slow over here. Everyone else is still on weekend.

Nothing much to say really. I just noticed that my Sluggy feed hadn't been updating (neither has my Perry Bible Fellowship) and what does that say about my priorities?

--

I was impressed to see the peanuts spoof on PVP towards the end of last week (so I guess I should have mentioned it then...). And not just because this one made me guffaw.

When I read webcomics I notice that some seem to take shortcuts (totally understandable IMO) and reuse templates or something. But by so accurately translating his characters into Schulz style, Kurtz was letting himself show off a little bit of the artistic skill he's worked on over his time doing webcomics. And that's nice every now and then.

Saturday, July 01, 2006

Simple/Complex

I forgot to mention in my post about Ted Rall's interview that he mentions what he thinks good cartooning should be. It's in context of him discussing Chris Ware of whom I haven't seen much, but I can totally understand the intent form what I have seen.

"...deliberately making things obtuse and difficult is counter to the spirit of what is supposed to be a populist medium. Anyone should be able to read comics. The concepts can be hard. But the structure and presentation should be as straightforward as possible."

I don't think it's easy to argue with that. Given a visual medium which relies upon its ability to evoke thoughts with fairly simply lines, surely Rall is right? But would Ware argue that using every available image possible and bringing as much together as possible is a good way to build upon that experience?

I haven't seen many (any?) webcomics that become very very complex. Their stories may be convoluted and their artwork detailed, but nothing that brings in so much as to be potentially as off putting as some sort of drawn James Joyce.

Anyone seen anything like that? Anyone willing to create something like that?